Last Modified: Friday, January 18, 2013 at 12:36 a.m.

Ronni Williams led Atlantic High School to a win over Orlando Jones on Thursday evening in Port Orange.

News-Journal file / Nigel Cook

“We lost to this team last year by 10,” Williams said postgame. “I said to myself and my team, ‘We are not going to lose again. Not to them.' My team did what they had to do, and they helped me get this victory.”

Of course, Williams, the 13th-best player in the nation according to ESPN, did her fair share as well. The big 6-foot-2 center led the Sharks (12-6) with a game-high 18 points to go with 15 rebounds, nine blocks, four assists and four steals.

And while her assist-number might have been one of her lowest stat totals of the night, her brilliant outlet passing proved a major factor in the game, thwarting the Tigers' pressure defense multiple times while starting Sharks fastbreaks.

“(Williams) did a great job,” Jones head coach Darnell Haney said. “She was big in there. She stuffed a couple shots on us and just outlet (passed) the rebound. My point guard just had to do a better job of getting back.”

It could have been worse.

In the first half, Atlantic turned six of Williams' brilliant passes into missed layups on the other end. But the Sharks got it right to start the third, getting three layups by Destiny Woodard, all off plays started on the defensive end by Williams.

The final one, which put Atlantic up 30-14, was initiated when Williams blocked Jones center Jazmyne Robinson in the lane, gobbled up the ball and fired ahead to Woodard.

The next time down the court, Williams ripped down a rebound, fired it down the court, and then raced after it, getting a pass from Woodward underneath the basket and laying it in to make it 32-14.

Jones, which featured a high-pressure fullcourt defense, did not go down without a fight. The athletic and scrappy Tigers battled back to cut it to 36-28 at the end of the third, and pulled to within 3 — 39-36 — on a jumper by Angela Jernigan with 5:12 to play.

But the Sharks had Williams, who patrolled the middle, fending off Tigers as her team clung to narrow lead late.

““I just did what I do,” Williams said. “I did what I was taught, and that is what the outcome was.”

Williams, who scored half of Atlantic's points in the opening quarter, led the Sharks to a 12-6 lead at the end of the first. Jones got back-to-back baskets from Jernigan — a 3 and a long 2-pointer from the corner — to take a 5-0 lead in the quarter.

Alexis Snead put in a layup off an assist from Williams to put Atlantic on the board. Just minutes later, Williams needed just one hand to zip a transition pass through the Jones defense into the hands of Dee Gillard, who put in a layup to give Atlantic its first lead — 7-5.

That is when Williams really turned it on, putting in a layup to make it 9-5, and following with back-to-back blocks. With 1:20 to go in the quarter she settled in the blocks, calling for the ball. She got it and a drop step, pivot and layup through a foul later, the Sharks were up 11-5. Williams knocked down the subsequent free throw to provide the difference at the end of the first.

She was quieter in the second, managing just four points, but with 2:17 to go she hit a pair of free throws to give her team the half's largest lead — 21-10. Jones closed out the half with a 3 from Idaysha Sealey to cut it to 21-13.

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